13. Ideology Versus Practice: Is There a Space for Pedagogical Translanguaging in Mother Tongue Instruction?

Abstract

Accordingly, we acknowledge the sociohistorical and political embeddedness of language use and language beliefs. Ideologies are, in this sense, seen as "power-linked discourses" (Woolard, 1998: 7), which people eventually come to perceive and embody as neutral and universal truths by being socialized as members of different institutions, by engaging with state-enforced policies, and by interacting with other people. In particular, we are interested in how the MTI teachers come to maintain and reproduce dominant idealized conceptions of language and pedagogy. Considering that teachers often "become the main agents through whom ideology is spread" (Shohamy, 2006: 79), it is important to investigate their beliefs and practices, as these are shaped by the underlying "dominant language ideology" (Kroskrity, 1998) that is embodied in curricula, school manuals, teaching materials, and teacher education. They are also constantly being reinforced and justified in the communicative practices in which teachers engage (cf. Busch, 2014). Nevertheless, notions of ideological embodiment and reproduction should not be viewed as static or non-contradictory, nor do they exclude possibilities for contestation and renegotiation (cf. Canagarajah, 2013).In this chapter, we focus on how ideologies of language and pedagogy were explicitly articulated by the teachers in our study during interviews and in informal conversations with the authors, as well as how these ideologies were being "embodied in communicative practice" (Kroskrity, 2006: 496), that is, how the ideologies could be observed and "read from actual usage" (Kroskrity 2006: 505) during the MTI lessons (cf. Martínez, Hikida & Durán, 2015;Salö, 2015). The analyses of the teachers' articulated and embodied beliefs are also situated in a sociohistorical and political context, by taking into consideration the historical foundation of MTI in Sweden, and the subject's possibilities and limitations in terms of policy and practice. Translanguaging and pedagogical translanguagingRecently, translanguaging has become a popular concept to describe and analyze language practices that occur in diverse settings (

‘English or Swedish please, no Dari!’ – (trans)languaging and language policing in upper secondary school’s language introduction programme in Sweden

“…In the following, a few studies contributing to the present one are discussed. In their study on mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden, Ganuza and Hedman (2017) focused on ideologies of language and pedagogy as they were explicitly articulated by MTI teachers during interviews and informal conversations, as well as the embodiment of those ideologies in communicative practices during MTI lessons. Situating analyses of teachers' articulated and embodied beliefs in a sociohistorical and political context entailed also discussing the historical foundation of the MTI in Sweden, as well as the subject's possibilities and limitations in terms of policy and practice.…”

Ideologías lingüísticas en el estudio de la ‘competencia en lengua índigena’ en Chile. Implicancias teóricas y metodológicas

“…Esta ideología monoglósica también conceptualiza al bilingüismo como monolingüismo paralelo y excluyente, y al individuo bilingüe como dos monolingües en uno (lo que refuerza el mito del bilingüismo balanceado). Esta perspectiva hace posible pedirle a un individuo bilingüe que separe y controle sus conocimientos y habilidades en cada lengua, para así ser evaluado de acuerdo a la norma monolingüe imaginada (García 2009, Allard et al 2014, McKinney et al 2015, Poza 2016, Ganuza y Hedman 2017, Vogel y García 2017. Tal perspectiva es posible identificarla en las mediciones indirectas utilizadas (por ejemplo, Zúñiga 2007, Gundermann et al 2007, Gundermann et al 2008, Espinosa 2009, Lagos 2012, donde las lenguas son entendidas como entidades mutuamente excluyentes las que los sujetos saben o no.…”

Translingual Discursive Spaces in Language and Arts Lessons

“…To fully explore the potential of translanguaging in the search for social justice, it needs to be implemented as a pedagogical framework that capitalizes on the strategic and responsible deployment of the students' linguistic repertoires. Hence, scholars like Ganuza and Hedman [4] argue that translanguaging should be systematically planned and implemented in learning activities rather than used as an arbitrary 'fall-back' option. Otherwise, unidirectional shifts from one language to the other become recurrent and reiterate inequalities in terms of participation dynamics and power positions.…”